Contents

Development

Lauren Faust was inspired to create Pinkie Pie by her childhood toy G1 Pegasus pony, Surprise.[1] The previous Pinkie Pie is a G3 pony whose coat is pink, with a lighter shade of pink for her mane and tail, and her cutie mark is three balloons with curved strings. Faust had published concept art of the G1 pony Surprise which was developed into the current Pinkie Pie. Hasbro published a recolor of the image in their "Style Guide for Pinkie Pie", complete with Pegasus wings. Pinkie Pie ultimately remained grounded and her wings were given to Fluttershy,[2][3] who was back then an Earth pony called Posey, and merchandise eventually gave the name Surprise to a member of The Wonderbolts. She shares some personality traits with the G1 pony named Clover.

According to Lauren Faust, she "used to have a 'power' of sorts when she ate too much candy", which she called a "Sugar Rush".[4] She'd plow through doors in a fit of speed, which would cause the Cakes to have to replace their front door on a weekly basis.[5]

Pinkie's mane and tail "poofing up" when she's happy and going flat when she's sad was conceived by Jim Miller for The Cutie Mark Chronicles and repeated in future episodes by James Wootton.[6]

Faust said that when the show was being developed, she encouraged the crew to keep the "wacky gags" exclusive to Pinkie.[7] The Season 1 DVD commentary for Winter Wrap Up says that Faust had dictated that "only Pinkie Pie could do certain crazy gags and other characters wouldn't do it."

According to The Hub's Twitter account and Facebook page, Pinkie Pie's birthday is May 3.[8][9] In the year 2012, this day was seventy-five days after February 18, the premiere date of A Friend in Deed, an episode in which Pinkie says that her birthday is not for another seventy-five days.

Depiction in the series

Exuberance

"Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... laughter!"

Pinkie is hyperactive, excitable, quirky, and outgoing, often speaking and acting in non sequiturs. She warmly welcomes new faces such as Twilight Sparkle and Cranky Doodle Donkey. True to the element of laughter she represents, she loves to make ponies smile and laugh.

Pinkie tends to have a lighthearted manner in serious situations, such as stopping to drink chocolate milk raining from a cotton candy cloud when the main characters confront Discord in The Return of Harmony Part 2. As a result, she is often not taken seriously even by her closest friends, who occasionally call her out on her seemingly illogical behavior.

In The Return of Harmony Part 1, Discord hypnotizes Pinkie with his chaotic magic. In this state, Pinkie is an irritable grump who hates laughter and happiness and has a general dislike of many things. When she's returned to normal in the following episode, she laughs, saying "I-I turned gray! Can you believe it?!"

Cartoonish behavior

Pinkie frequently performs cartoonish feats, such as eye-bulging, wild takes, and unusually angled cuts into the frame. Her merry skips resemble Pepé Le Pew's, particularly in Griffon the Brush Off. Her costume and waddle in Dragonshy are reminiscent of Daffy Duck's four-legged body in Duck Amuck.

On several occasions, Pinkie breaks the fourth wall and shows awareness of cinematic elements. For example, at the end of Over a Barrel, she pokes her head through the iris wipe to grumble about Twilight's friendship lesson, and in Magic Duel, she stretches the iris wipe wide open and climbs into the black screen to protest about her vanished mouth.

In Equestria Girls, Pinkie's human counterpart laments she does not have a party cannon of her own. In Rainbow Rocks, she uses a kick drum that serves a similar function.

Insecurity

Pinkie Pie not quite feeling like herself.

On occasion, Pinkie Pie shows an insecure side of her personality, doubting her friends or herself. In Party of One, she believes her friends to be unfaithful, causing her hair to "deflate" and her coat color to fade to a grayish pink. She adopts several inanimate objects as new friends, pretending that they are real.

Pinkie Pie tries to prove that she is responsible in Baby Cakes by begging Mr. and Mrs. Cake to let her babysit their children. When the Cakes eventually agree, Pinkie Pie quickly becomes overwhelmed by the task and shows doubt in her ability to handle the responsibility.

In A Friend in Deed, Pinkie Pie tries to befriend Cranky Doodle Donkey, despite his many rejections. She only succeeds in making a friend out of him by reuniting him with Matilda.

In Too Many Pinkie Pies, Pinkie Pie creates duplicates of herself in order to make time for her friends. However, when Ponyville becomes overrun by dozens of Pinkie Pies, Pinkie Pie soon wonders if she's even the real Pinkie Pie.

In Pinkie Pride, Pinkie Pie feels outdone and replaced by Cheese Sandwich and doubts in her own partying abilities. She gives up party planning and tries other tasks but fails at them. Her faith in herself is only renewed when she looks back on parties she had thrown for her friends.

Skills

Musical abilities

Pinkie frequently performs songs in the series and is shown to be able to play a variety of musical instruments. She plays a one-pony band in Swarm of the Century and Magic Duel, as well as the pipe organ in Castle Mane-ia despite having no prior knowledge of having played said instrument.

Cooking

Pinkie works at Sugarcube Corner, a confectionery run by Mr. and Mrs. Cake. She teaches Apple Bloom how to make cupcakes in Call of the Cutie and sometimes comes up with her own outlandish recipes, such as cupcakes topped with hot sauce in Friendship is Magic, part 1 and a "chimicherrychanga" in The Last Roundup.

Pinkie Sense

In Feeling Pinkie Keen, Pinkie reveals her ability to predict events in the near future by interpreting various twitches and involuntary motions, which she calls her "Pinkie Sense". The citizens of Ponyville pay heed to Pinkie's predictions, according to Applejack. Twilight is skeptical of the Pinkie Sense at first, since she fails to find a scientific explanation for it, but she eventually accepts it.

In The Mysterious Mare Do Well, Pinkie saves a team of construction workers from a collapsing building as part of the "Mare Do Well" plan. After Pinkie mentions her Pinkie Sense, her tail twitches, and she pushes Rainbow Dash out of the way of a falling pot. In It's About Time, Pinkie says she can only predict immediate events and not the actual future. Her tail twitches and a flowerpot falls on Twilight's head. In Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1, her tail twitches before a plunderseed vine knocks into Rarity.

"My shoulder's achy. That means there's an alligator in the tub." She pulls Gummy out of Twilight's bathtub.

"Ear flop, then knee twitch, then eye flutter. That means the sky is about to be graced with a beautiful rainbow!"

"Ear flop, then eye flutter, then knee twitch. That usually means 'look out for opening doors'."

Twilight observes, "She's hiding like something's about to fall out of the sky, but a twitchy tail means that something's about to fall from the sky, not an itchy nose." A swarm of bees then appears and attacks Twilight.

"Whatever that shudder's about, it's a doozy. Something you never expect to happen is gonna happen!" After the hydra attack, Pinkie says the attack wasn't the doozy. After Twilight decides to believe in the Pinkie Sense, Pinkie tells her "You believing. I never expected that to happen.”

Ice-skating

Twilight admires Pinkie's ice-skating skills in Winter Wrap Up. Pinkie states she's been skating since she was "an itty-bitty little-wittle twinkie-Pinkie." Later, in Power Ponies, she skates around on scrubbing brushes.

Memory

In various episodes, Pinkie Pie is shown to have an exceptional memory. In Friendship is Magic, part 1, Pinkie says she knows "everypony in Ponyville." In A Friend in Deed, she wishes Cheerilee a happy birthday, Zecora a happy day-after-her-birthday, and Matilda a happy-birthday-in-one-hundred-and-thirty-two-days.

When Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom clears the clouds and paints a rainbow across the sky, the shock wave frizzles Pinkie Pie's hair and gives it its distinctive curl. The sonic rainboom that she witnesses makes her smile, and she then decides to dedicate her life to spreading joy to other ponies. She invites her family to their first party ever, and they all shakily develop smiles, eventually merrily participating in Pinkie's party.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders are unsure whether Pinkie Pie's story is true or not, but it is implied in Magic Duel that Pinkie did indeed live on a rock farm, when Trixie complains about working on one. In addition, Pinkie's father appears in Trixie's flashback. Pinkie Pie and her friends visit the rock farm itself in the episode Maud Pie.

The plot of Pinkie Apple Pie involves Pinkie investigating the possibility that she may be related to the Apple family, although in the end the truth is left ambiguous.

Pinkie Promise

Pinkie Pie demonstrating the Pinkie Promise.

Pinkie Pie has her own kind of promise, a variation of "cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." Her version is "cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Twilight recites this promise in Green Isn't Your Color, Applejack in The Last Roundup, and the whole main cast (except Twilight) in Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1. Pinkie makes a Pinkie Party Promise to Rainbow Dash by literally sticking a cupcake in her eye in Pinkie Pride. Pinkie takes these promises very seriously, stalking Twilight throughout Green Isn't Your Color to make sure she doesn't break one and angrily pursuing Applejack in The Last Roundup when she believes she has broken one.

Gummy is Pinkie Pie's toothless one-year-old pet alligator who is introduced in Feeling Pinkie Keen. Pinkie Pie confides in Gummy many times about her feelings in Party of One, and she celebrates her birthday one day after Gummy's in the same episode. She outright screams to Gummy how much she loves him in Just for Sidekicks.

Depiction in films

In My Little Pony Equestria Girls, Pinkie Pie's human counterpart is the head of the party planning committee at Canterlot High. Twilight meets her in the gymnasium to sign up for the Princess of the Fall Formal contest. At first, Pinkie is not on good terms with Fluttershy and Rarity, but they realize that Sunset Shimmer turned them against each other. The friends reconcile and work together to help Twilight win the contest.

When Twilight starts explaining who she really is, Pinkie accurately guesses on "a hunch" that Twilight is a pony princess from an alternate world on a mission to retrieve a "magical element"; her pony counterpart similarly guesses the details of Twilight's relationship with Flash Sentry in the human world later on. After Sunset Shimmer's defeat, Pinkie tries to follow Twilight through the portal, but the portal closes.

The human Pinkie has the same cartoonish aspects as her pony counterpart. At one point, she picks one of the balloon patterns off her skirt and inflates it like an actual balloon. She also wishes for "a party cannon that could decorate everything super fast," an object that her pony counterpart already owns.

Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks

Pinkie Pie's human counterpart playing the drums in Rainbow Rocks.

In the movie sequel My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks and its tie-in animated shorts, Pinkie's human counterpart plays the drums in her friends' band, the Rainbooms. She is first seen in the film helping her friends make a poster for the CHS Musical Showcase. Instead of paste, she uses cake frosting, which makes the poster smell like cake. Unlike the first film, the sequel gives human Pinkie more cartoonish gags, including hanging upside down from the top of the frame, using one of her kick-drums as a party cannon, playing a hand of four Jokers in a card game with Applejack, and having a refrigerator full of cans of whipped cream. Also, in this film, Pinkie has a tendency to skip instead of walk, much like pony Pinkie's tendency to hop instead of walk.

When the Rainbooms are at each other's throats over who is to blame for their predicament in the climax, Pinkie thinks that being in the Rainbooms is now the opposite of fun. After Sunset gets the Rainbooms to see their mistake and forgive each other, Pinkie is ecstatic that the band is back together.

In the animated short Pinkie on the One, Pinkie Pie displays both the talent and energy of an expert drummer, which she expresses through her baking and artistry. She has so much energy that she cannot stop drumming with her eating utensils in the cafeteria. When Rarity suggests finding an outlet for Pinkie's energy, Rainbow Dash places her in front of a drum set. Pinkie performs a wild, fast drum solo and she transforms into her half-pony form.

Other depictions

Hasbro.com description

To say that Pinkie Pie marches to the beat of her own drum is certainly an understatement! Giggly, playful and brimming over with energy, it's not unusual to find this pink pony prancing and skipping joyfully through the streets looking for fun, doing cartwheels, singing a song in a silly voice and making up her own ridiculous lyrics. By far the silliest pony around, nothing makes her happier than evoking a giggle and a smile from her friends. She is the freest of free spirits, always acting on her whims, following her heart, talking your ear off and getting a laugh or two along the way.[11]

Hasbro.com "Meet Pinkie Pie" clip

Pinkie Pie keeps her pony friends laughing and smiling all day! Eager to amuse her friends and make everyone happy, Pinkie Pie will find any excuse to throw a party! More than one pony in Ponyville has been the unsuspecting victim of a sneak-attack surprise party! To Pinkie Pie, everyday with her friends is worth celebrating![12]

Hasbro.com Equestria Girls clip

Free spirited Pinkie Pie has a personality as big as her heart and almost as big as her laugh! She loves having a good time and that's why she's perfect to head up party planning at Canterlot High. But it isn't all fun and games. She has a lot to do, like, planning parties, attending parties, decorating parties, catering parties, thinking about parties, talking about parties, looking at really sparkly things! Oh, and of course, helping her friend Twilight take home the crown at the Fall Formal. And she'll do it all with a smile on her face and the magic of friendship in her heart![13]

Rainbow Rocks description

Always ready with a joke and a laugh, Pinkie Pie’s vibrant energy adds lots of color to the Rainbooms (pink, of course!). As the band’s drummer, she keeps the tempo lively and the mood light with her offbeat style.[14]

HubNetwork.com description

Pinkie Pie is a free spirit who prances to the beat of her own drum. Actually, she prances to the sound of her own singing. She's playful and full of energy. She can talk till the ponies come home. She loves to invent silly songs, giggle, skip, and make her friends laugh.

Teacher for a Day description

Pinkie Pie keeps her pony friends laughing and smiling all day! She believes every day is worth celebrating, and loves to throw parties with her pony friends. The only thing Pinkie Pie loves as much as her friends and parties are sweets. She loves to visit the Sugarcube sweet shop. She is always positive, and always helps the ponies see the bright side. You can count on Pinkie Pie for lots and lots of fun.[15]

My Little Pony mobile game description

Pinkie Pie represents the Element of Laughter and loves to make everybody happy, throw parties, eat sweets, and talk and talk and talk!

My Little Pony magazine description

Giggly

Fun

Chatterbox

What a ball of energy! Pinkie Pie is super girly and loves to make everybody happy, throw parties, eat sweets and talk and talk and talk!

The Elements of Harmony guidebook

Giggly, playful, and super girly, it's not unusual to find PINKIE PIE prancing and skipping blissfully through the streets of Ponyville. The silliest pony around, Pinkie Pie has a desire to entertain that makes her the most likely source for humor. She is a free spirit, often acting on her whims and following her heart. You would never guess she grew up on a dreary rock farm. Eager to amuse her friends and make everyone happy, Pinkie Pie will find any excuse to throw a party. She loves eating sweets and baking them so much that she is often found at the Sweet Shoppe in Sugarcube Corner, where she works, and lives in the apartment upstairs.

Merchandise, commercials, and cameos

Pinkie Pie is featured in many commercials and her likeness is used for many toys and other merchandise. Several cards in the collectible card game have quotes from The Art of Fun, an in-universe book written by Pinkie Pie.

Quotes

"Isn't this exciting? Are you excited because I'm excited I've never been so excited, well, except for the time that I saw you walking into town and I went [gasp] but I mean really, who could top that?"

"I'd never felt joy like that before! It felt so good I just wanted to keep smiling forever! And I wanted everyone I knew to smile too, but rainbows don't come along that often. I wondered, how else could I create some smiles?"

"You're from an alternate world and you're a pony princess there and the crown actually has a magical element embedded in it that helps power up other magical elements and without it they don't work anymore, and you need them all to help protect your magical world, and if you don't get the crown tonight, you'll be stuck in this world and you won't be able to get back for like a really, really long time!"